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<\/a>Build #1 – lost<\/p><\/div>\n
Don DeLoach commented that the tail looked too small.\u00a0 I had already enlarged it once, but trusted Don’s advise (as we all should) and scaled it up again for build #2.\u00a0 Build #2 took place yesterday and I decided two things:\u00a0 1) photo-document the whole thing and 2) go with full decoration.\u00a0 What follows is my build process, with some explanations of why I do certain things.<\/p>\n
<\/a>the laser-cut parts. top-to-bottom: 1\/64th ply, two sheets of 1\/32″ balsa, and one sheet of 1\/16″ balsa<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>an experiment in #1 that continued into #2. I replaced the nose of the main fuselage with 1\/64″ plywood. The nose takes a lot of stress and needs to be strong.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>I have some 1\/8″ wide carbon fiber ribbon that is 0.005″ thick. I cut this to the length of the fuselage, tip-to-tip, and split it to 2 strips 1\/16″ wide. This will be on either side of the main fuselage to add a great deal of strength.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>I pinned down the fuselage side and drew a line tip-to-tip where i wanted the carbon fiber to go. I am using medium CA. It gives you a little time once you put the strip down, but locate the strip quickly.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>the carbon fiber strip is in the proper location and I an pressing and rubbing it down with the flat end of an xacto handle. Press and force out the excess glue.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>do the same to the other side. Once the glue was pressed out, I wiped down excess with a piece of scrap balsa.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>I designed nose doublers to add even more strength. Before I glue them on, I feather the trailing edge so that there is less of a “step” there on the fuselage.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>There is one for each side. They cover the ply-balsa joint, cover the carbon fiber strip, and extend past the wing to give full support there, also. Given that I need nose weight, I could have done two ply sides over a solid 1\/32″ fuselage, but this works just fine. Note that they are also somewhat cross-grained to the main fuselage.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>This shows the CA over the entire area. You don’t want any separation anywhere. I used an “x” on both pieces so that I knew which side was to be glued and which side was to be sanded. Make one left and one right!<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Did I mention that the nose takes a lot of abuse? After the sandwiched CA is set, I ran thin CA around the edge to soak into those joints and inside the hook. Then I coated the front part of the nose with thin CA.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>The leading edges on Build #1 took a beating, so I am using bass leading edges. Bass isn’t super hard, but it is better than light balsa.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>All parts ready for a) assembly or b) covering! I feathered the trailing edges of the wings and did a little of the same on the tail pieces. All surfaces were sanded smooth and edges rounded.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Printed Tissue! This is a tutorial for another time, but I basically take the plan, a good 3-view, a select color, assorted graphics and layer them in Photoshop. Printed on white Esaki through my Epson printer.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>Cover just like any other model. I coat the entire surface with UHU (yeah, that’s purple UHU – it fades over time and the label peeled off) and cover with dry tissue.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>all parts covered and ready for assembly. Notice there is no black CF stripe down the side of the fuselage. I glued an strip of 1\/32″ balsa over the CF strip and sanded it down until there was almost nothing left – just to “hide’ that black strip.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>setting the wing dihedral<\/p><\/div>\n
I am happy to report that Ohka #2 has NOT been lost.\u00a0 I stopped testing short of that.\u00a0 I probably had well over 100 flights on the #1 on Monday – it was just too much fun and showed little glimmers of promise.\u00a0 #2 is much more stable and predictable and pushed the limits of my small field inside of 10 flights.\u00a0 I would have a video here, but I can’t figure out how to launch a jet cat and film it at the same time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Monday, I designed built, flew, and lost a little test bed Ohka Glider.\u00a0 Ok, “designed” might be a stretch – I participated in an online Ohka JetCat build back in 1999 or so, and I started with my rough … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n